One
of the biggest money making segments on the internet is pornography.
For years, the U.S.-based ICM Registry Inc company has been
petitioning for a new top level domain specifically for the porn
industry.

ICANN has repeatedly denied the request to create a
domain .xxx that would be used by sites with adult or pornographic
material. In 2007, ICANN denied
the request to create the .xxx domain with ICANN chairman
Dr. Vinton Cerf stating, "[The] decision was the result of very
careful scrutiny and consideration of all the
arguments."

Reuters reports
that ICANN is now expected to finally approve
the .xxx domain as early as today. Members of the ICANN
board are arguing that in order to maintain neutrality, ICANN should
allow the creation of the .xxx domain.

ICANN general counsel
John Jeffrey said, "If expedited due diligence results are
successful, then staff will proceed into contract negotiations with
ICM [for the .xxx domain]."Figures
collected by Internet Pornography Statistics claim $3,000 per second
is spent online for pornography and that the term "sex" is
the most searched term on the internet, making up a full 25% of all
search queries. There are unsurprisingly several groups that are
against the .xxx – religious groups are opposed on moral
grounds.

Oddly, some pornography industry insiders also
oppose the creation stating that the .xxx domain would invite
censorship. That makes sense considering if most porn sites used the
domain the .xxx domain could simply be blocked entirely with
firewalls whereas most businesses can’t block all access to .com or
.net websites.

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